Deflated Anemone - Pretty Bad!

[gb530]

Overall, I dont think my nems are in the best shape they could be in. Both of them on a good day are not that "bubbly" and are fairly translucent in color. I posted a video so I could show you guys the two nems.

One of my RBTAs for the second night in a row has completely deflated. It did it last night at the same time and deflates for roughly 3 hours. I have another anemone that is completely fine, the two I have are actually a split from the same anemone. What's everyones thoughts as to why this is happening to one of them?

YOUTUBE VIDEO: http://youtu.be/y14w1DZjb94

Somethings to note: (1) Two days ago, I took back to a LFS an aggressive clarki clown that was hosting the deflated anemone. (2) The same time I took the clown back, I fed the nem a silverside. But did not feed the other nem that is doing fine.



Parameters
Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8.29
KH/Alk: 8.4 DKH
Ca: 500-510 (a little high but I dont think this is the problem)
Phosphate: 0
Nitrate: 4ppm

[gb530]

Also, I wanted to note that I do not have much experience with Anemones. This once singular nem is the first nem I have ever had.

Is it normal for them to sometimes deflate like this? or is it always a sure sign that something is wrong if it does this?

[greg1786]

Deflating is not necessarily a bad sign. If its doing it at exactly the same time every day it could be just expelling waste and water to freshen up so to speak. If the deflating becomes sporatic or more often then you have something to worry about. I had a similar situation on my hands recently. I had a 6" RBTA that was beautiful and healthy hosting two cinnamon clowns. During this time i had an aptasia outbreak that I purchased peppermint shrimp to eradicate. They completely wiped out all aptasia and seemed to be model citizens. One day my nem decided to split like yours which seemed awesome at the time. The problem became that the clowns had grown pretty significantly by the time the nem went from one 6" to two 3" nems. The clowns were clearly too big and i thought they wrre really roughing the nems up because they began shrinking slowly and acting abnormally.i took immediate action and moved the clowns to my sump. After a few weeks sans clownfish, the nems were still on the decline. Before I figured out what was going on both of them shrunk so far that one was less than an inch and had two tentacles and ther slightly bigger with a few more tentacles. One day i came home from work and found my two peppermint shrimp eating a hole through the center of my starfish and the next day they had torn the flesh off my plate coral!!! I caught the shrimp and put them in the sump as well. I started feeding my nems everyother day and noticed an Immediate positive response. The shrimp have been outta the tank for a few short weeks and i. That time both nems have grown their tentacles back and nearly doubled in size. The point of me telling you this is to assure you that you made the right move with the clowns and to make you aware that if you have shrimp or crabs keep a close eye they may be picking at your nems.if your params are good and stable and your lighting is sufficient than theres a good chance if the nems are on the decline its because of a physical irritator! After all that ive said , i wouldnt hit the panic button yet because as i stated in the beginning, regular deflating can be totally normal, so just keep a watchful eye out to make sure thats all it is. Good luck

[gb530]

Thanks for the detailed response and story Greg! I never thought of a physical problem from other animals. I will keep a closer eye on my scarlet shrimp but I have never noticed them picking at the Anemone before, ever, but of course right when I film, the shrimp is picking at him, lol ... The same nem deflated again tonight, same time. I am just going to wait it out i guess. Any other thoughts?

[greg1786]

No problem. When the nem deflates, do you notice him expelling anything that looks like waste? It should be a blackish brown color? If so that its pretty normal to do that. How often do you feed it? When mine been healthy in the past i rarely fed any of them and they would deflate every few days to expell waste. Now that I am feeding on a regular basis to help them recover, they both deflate and expel waste once a day. The more they eat and digest food, the more they have to expel the waste.

[gb530]

Interesting! and they look as bad as mine is in the video? .... I did not feed mine for 2 months before feeding it the other day.

[sjwitt]

I have four, very large RBTAs and they will all shrivel up at times and look just like yours in the video. They're doing a 100% water change and it's normal. BUT, I will have to say that if you fed this one a silverside and not the other one (the one that isn't deflating) ... then I suspect it's the silverside.

Many on the forum are reporting issues after feeding silversides. Some believe it is due to silversides not being regulated (because they're not for human consumption) so they may be spoiling prior to freezing or thawing and re-freezing in transit. I recommend you do NOT feed silversides.

Use any raw seafood packaged for human consumption like shrimp, clam, scallop, etc. Some use fish ... I read on another thread that one person's anemones love tuna. Mine are more partial to shell fish, but the point is to try and provide a variety of things. When you feed, make sure to chop up the meat small, like 1/4 the size of the mouth or the size of a pea.

Feed small portions and make sure the anemone is not regurgitating the food. If it does you're overfeeding it. Also, FWIW, I have crabs, peppermint shrimp, cleaner shrimp, banded shrimp, and a reef lobster in my tank. None of them bother my anemones but they will try to steal food if they can and will eat any excretions. Maybe your shriveled anemone is trying to expel the bad silverside and the shrimp (a scavenger) is trying to eat that.

[gb530]

I am glad you brought this up because I had a strong feeling it could have been the silversides. I have not given the nem any since this last Sunday and tonight it did not deflate. I am throwing the silversides away and will be feeding human quality seafood.

How many pea sized pieces do you feed your anemones? and how often?

I've got another question for you guys in regards to my Anemones. When I fist got the nem, it was very colorful, bubbly, and plump. It had a really bright red and green color to it. However, it is not the same nem as when I first purchased it. What do you think is going on? and how do you think I can bring the nem back from when I first got it.... I have pictures below from when I first got the nem to today.

Day 3 of the nem being in my tank.



7 months later (yesterday). It split at month 3/4 of being in my tank.

[greg1786]

Bta tend to randomly become bubbless. Some suspect its lighting related others say flow but there is no real answer as to why they lose their bubbles. Its pretty common and perfectly normal. The coloration on the other hand if it has slowly become lighter over time could be a lack of light causing its zooaxnthelle to bleach. What is your lighting type and schedule?

[gb530]

I have 2 kessels above my tank. Both are the A350W. Lights are on for 12 hours from 9:00am-9:00pm. They are not progressively getting worse and seem to be ok. I just want it to look like it did on day 1, lol. I wonder if its the LED's?

[ca1ore]

I'm really wrestling with the whole LED thing. I recently bought the most recent full-spectrum ReefBreeders light and while there are a lot of things to like about it, many of my animals did not seem as happy as they had been under the MH. I've therefore started experimenting with running a combo of both LED and MH.

[greg1786]

I run t5 lighting so I am not as familiar with LEDs but it seems like you should have enough light for him. Does he expand really wide during the day or reach upwards like hes trying to soak up as much light as possible??

[sjwitt]

As far as feeding, I usually give mine 3 small bay scallops, chopped small, two times a week. I will also rehydrate dried krill and give them those but mine like the scallops best. My largest is at least 14" across and the other three are slightly smaller than that. When everyone is awake and open they make up about a 2-foot square in the corner of my tank... Clown is in heaven.

As far as coloring goes, yours look normal and healthy to me. You can try adding different spectrum lighting to get more color pop. I added the magenta and blue LEDs to bump up the color some.

Mine don't bubble much anymore; sometimes they do but not often.

[justthewife]

I think if the color is good, the mouth is tight, its not moving around the tank, and there are plenty of tentacles, then it is fine. My anemone has gotten big and it hardly ever bubbled the whole time I had him. I feed mine frozen brine shrimp, frozen squid, and frozen mysis shrimp. He loves the squid. It is the fish store quality food. I used to give him silversides and he didn't really do well on those. I think they do better with smaller meaty foods than whole chunks. Of course I only have ever had one anemone so I am not an expert. Mine is healthy and big though. The only time mine bubbled is when he hurt his foot and when I first got him. I have mine under LED lights as well. Shrimp do tend to bother them until they start fighting back.

[aydemir]

The anemone should be getting enough energy from the light assuming the light is sufficient for a bta. You don't actually have to feed it anything, you could just dose plankton and filter feeder foods and it would do just fine. But if you want it to grow faster then feeding it meaty foods will help a lot. +1 on the bad silversides, I've heard too many horror stories...

[gb530]

Sorry for the late response, I've been on vacation in the country of Belize for 17 days!

I read all the comments. Thanks for all the tips, stories, and advice! I believe 90% of the issue was the silversides... I tried some fresh "human grade" salmon, broke it up, and gave some to my nems when I retured from vacation (about 1.5 weeks ago). Almost overnight, both nems got thicker and I actually saw some bubble tips on my larger RBTA!!! I will post some pics up when I get a chance

For some reason I have this gut fealing that 10% is still due to the LEDs. I feel that they would do best under Metal Halides.

Conclusion: still love my LEDs for many reasons and am really glad I threw away those silversides!

Originally Posted by ca1ore

I'm really wrestling with the whole LED thing. I recently bought the most recent full-spectrum ReefBreeders light and while there are a lot of things to like about it, many of my animals did not seem as happy as they had been under the MH. I've therefore started experimenting with running a combo of both LED and MH.

Let me know how the experiment turns out!

[worm5406]

I have heard more problems with silversides than I care to post about.

It is normally not a problem with the fish, but that they might have thawed and soured during shipping prior to you getting them.



Glad things are looking better.

Any new pictures or video's?

[sjwitt]

Glad to hear they're better. Pictures please.

I run MH and LEDs, I like the color of it and everyone seems happy so I'm in the "combo" camp.

[gb530]

HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!!

I just took some pics of my nems. Ill let the pictures do the talking...



This pic is not the best quality, sorry!


Right side shot of my tank, the nem is dead center

[gb530]

OK, so I had to do a video too because videos are wayyy better than just pictures!!!

Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_RC4...ature=youtu.be

[sjwitt]

Looks good.

[worm5406]

Originally Posted by gb530

OK, so I had to do a video too because videos are wayyy better than just pictures!!!

Check it out:

Very nice and good looking tank too!

[gb530]

Thanks guys... crazy how big of a difference just changing the food can make!!!